Biographies & History in Magic & Mentalism

This is a wonderful and very readable autobiography by Tony Kardyro, aka Senor Torino or Tony London. It is filled with lots of great routines, tips, and bits of business from a pro who was living and breathing magic. It includes interesting and educational stories and opinions to learn from. For example:

Wonderful recollections and stories about show business and performers, including some magicians, spanning the late 19th century and the early 20th century.

• Bibliography
• I Brighton Front
• II Brighton Front (Continued)
• III Circus Memories
• IV Famous Clowns
• V Early Days In America
• VI America On Business And Holiday
• VII "Tout Paris"
• VIII Beauty In Woman
• IX Giants Of The Theatre
• X Shakespeare In My Time
• XI A Panorama Of Playgoing
• XII Ballet Memories
• XIII Settings and Shows
• XIV Nothing New
• XV Seventy Years Of Song
• XVI Celebrities Of The Ring
• XVII Farewell To Boxing Promotion
• XVIII...

The amusing cartoons about poker and its players make this a worthwhile read for any poker enthusiast. Briefly goes into cheating methods.

Houdini and I among the spiritualists.

This book is one of the most important sources of skeptical literature on paranormal investigation from 1890 - 1950. It includes obscure and forgotten newspaper records, material that today appears nowhere else. Its references to Houdini and clippings dealing with him provide important source material for research into Houdini.

1. Early Days with Houdini. The Search Begins. Society for Psychical Research. The Feats of Stuart Cumberland. Tests in Muscle-Reading. Herrmann the Great. The Hen that Laid Gold Pieces. The Talking Kettle
2. The Seybert Commission. A...

"Believe in your dreams!"

"If you love magic history, you need this book. If you love card magic, you'll also get a big section of hardcore card methods from France. Christian Gambin, one of Paris' last remaining classic music-hall performers, has preserved the wild, bygone world of the Paris cabaret magic scene in his autobiography, an entire field of the art that disappeared as the modern era dawned. Gambin is a multitalented entertainer who's performed everywhere in Europe from the Paradis Latin to the Monaco Grand Prix of Magic. I saw him knock out audiences at many of those places. You'll...

Or the life, adventures, and personal experience of Jonathan H. Green.

It commences at his parentage and gives the whole history of the Life of the Reformed Gambler from the time of his birth until his reformation and conversion. It is a book designed as a warning to the young men of this country and is one that all should read and take warning and advice from. Beautifully illustrated from various scenes in the course of his life.

• Preface
• The Gambler's Life
  • Prentage
  • Elopement
  • Bad company
  • Game of Thimbles—Stool Pigeon—Betting
  • A Mother's Dying Charge
  • Mental Agony from Unjust...

This is Dr. Lynn's autobiography describing his travels in Australia, China, Japan, Hong Kong, India, and other countries. He was the earliest Western magician to perform in China and Japan. He had a long-lasting rivalry with J. N. Maskelyne appearing a week before Maskelyne in the Egyptian Hall in London in the spring of 1873.

In the "How It's Done" section he provides mock descriptions of some of his tricks.

• TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF DR. LYNN
• HOW IT'S DONE
  • The Mysterious Spirit-writing
  • The Blood-writing on the Arm
  • Time in a Fix
  • The Pomaceous Puzzle
  • The Ornithological Inexplicability
  • The...

Includes news stories and photos from Hardeen's life as an escape artist. Plus some handcuff secrets and a couple of tricks are explained.

• Theo. Weiss Hardeen
  • Chief Of Police Stirling Baffled
  • The Murderous Insane Strait-Jacket Challenge
  • Hardeen Appears Before A Mighty Audience Of Eighty Thousand People
  • King Oscar Of Sweden Sees Hardeen
  • Klaw And Erlanger Engage Hardeen
  • Hardeen Jumps Heavily Manacled Into The Ohio River From The 18th Street Bridge, A Distance Of Sixty Feet, Into Six Feet Of Water, And Releases Himself While Under Water
  • Lives Of Thousands Of People Jeopardized
  • Hardeen...

Ideas for radio magic, podcasts, and ZOOM shows

Radio has a following of thousands of listeners. It is a powerful promotional vehicle for magicians that the magic press have long neglected.

Combining the extensive research of Ian Fenn with the previously unpublished thoughts of Arthur Setterington, this ebook aims to help magicians make the most of this challenging medium.

It's not merely a book of tricks. It's intended to give you the information you need to create your own routines that will turn listeners into clients or live audiences.

Contents

• Introduction
• History of radio...

Indian Conjuring is an illustrated guide to Indian magic tricks by Major L. H. Branson, a British officer in the British Indian Army and magician. It includes explanations and step-by-step instructions for a variety of magic tricks that the author came across while serving in colonial India during the early twentieth century.

[Please note that this book is filled with colonialism and racism. We provide such digital reproductions of old books for research, learning, and historical perspective. It does not mean that we agree with any particular statement, point of view, or opinion offered.]

• CHAPTER I: A Comparison
• CHAPTER II
• The Cup And Balls
• CHAPTER III: The Bamboo-Sticks
• The Ring On The Stick
• CHAPTER IV: The Glass Box
• CHAPTER V: The Bowl Of Rice
• CHAPTER VI: A Rope Trick
• The Swastika
• The Egg Bag
• CHAPTER VII: The Dancing Duck
• CHAPTER VIII:...

Reminiscences of the life of humorist Artemus Ward (Charles Farrar Browne) and pictures of a showman's career in the Western world.

A wonderful account of show business by the example of the humorist Artemus Ward during the 19th century. In particular, it describes how performers had to travel through the US during the 1860s, how they had to advertise and promote their shows, including the characters they encountered and the situations they had to master.

For conjurers most interesting is chapter 25: Spiritualism And Conjuring. This tells of how Hingston and Browne helped a conjurer by...

An account of the author's professional life; his wonderful tricks and feats; with laughable incidents, and adventures as a magician, necromancer, and ventriloquist.

Excerpt from the Preface:

John Henry Pepper took a projection invention of Henry Dircks, called The Ghost, with his permission, and made it practical so that it could more easily be performed. He earned a lot of money staging it. Even though Dircks did not want any payments from Pepper, there was a falling out between the two because the invention became known as Pepper's Ghost. Dircks wanted to have his name associated with it. This prompted Dircks to write The Ghost. Pepper's answer to that publication and dispute came almost 30 years later in this work The True History of the Ghost.

He also includes the history and working of Metempsychosis...

As produced in the spectre drama, popularly illustrating the marvellous optical illusions obtained by the apparatus called the Dircksian Phantasmagoria being a full account of its history, construction, and various adaptations.

Henry Dircks was the first who came up with the stage illusions that later became known as Pepper's Ghost. He had an arrangement with Pepper, they took out a patent in both their names, and Dircks did not want any monetary remuneration for it. John Henry Pepper improved the configuration to make it more practical and successfully staged it earning quite a lot of money with it. However,...

For the first time explains and demonstrates the great secret of her marvelous power.

In this autobiography, Lulu Hurst tells her rise to fame and fortune by performing acts of incredible strength on stage. She does this with personal recollections as well as quoting from various newspaper reports. At the time she performed many attributed her strength to some as of yet unknown or unexplainable force. But she had no unusual strength or the aid of any special force. She cleverly used mechanical principles as well as showmanship to make it appear she had super-human strength. In the second...

Life and adventure on the prairies, mountains, and Pacific coast.

Beyond the Mississippi is a travel log of Albert Richardson from a few years before and after the American Civil War. As the title suggests, he traveled west of the Mississippi through states and territories such as Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Iowa, Oregon, California, Nevada, etc. He describes nature, people, politics, and commerce. It includes exciting adventures as well as fairly dry facts such as how many bushels of grain a particular area produces. Overall it is quite readable and the...

This multi-part article starts with some historical perspectives and then is largely about the evils of gambling. However, it has a section on crooked play which is interesting for historical reasons. The topics covered in the section are:

• Reflectors
• The Longs and Shorts
• Convex and Concave Cards
• Pricked Cards
• The Bridge
• Skinning
• Shuffling or Weaving
• The Gradus, or Step
• Palming
• The Telegraph
• Dice and Dice Boxes
• Unequal Dice
• Loaded Dice
• Cogging, now called Securing
• Scratched Dice
• The Doctored Dice-Box
• Sauter La Coupe (the pass or shift)

1st edition 1837, PDF 73 pages.

This is a celebration of Sorcar's success as a magician. Several authors, reviewers, and commentators write about Sorcar and his performances. This is followed by cartoons by Alias and photos depicting Sorcar in various places.

• Preface
• John Booth - Sorcar: Greatest Illusionist in Indian History
• Arthur Leroy - It Can't Be Done
• Krishan H. Gandhi - Sorcar: The Master Magician
• Gasho Ishikawa - Sorcar In Japan
• Goodliffe - Sorcar: The World's Greatest Magician
• Burns Scandrett - Sorcar in Australia and New Zealand
• Jay and Frances Marshall - He Really is the World's Greatest Magician
• Ronald Murray Shanik - The Great Sorcar:...

An informal history of gambling in America from the colonies to Canfield.

Inside flap:

A sketch of the life of Henry Meyer a converted gambler.

Henry Meyer was by his own account a very successful gambler who would play predominantly in Europe. One day he played against a young man and won all his money. Subsequently, that young man took his own life. At that point, Meyer realized that the young man was his younger brother. This charring experience made him give up gambling completely.

While I don't doubt that Meyer was a professional gambler who would later reform and give up gambling, the story with his brother rings a bit too fantastic. It is hard to believe that he and...

This is an excellent series of articles on the history of gambling in America. Excerpt from the introduction:

• Preying Upon the Wage Earners
• How They Prey Upon One Another
  • Where Every Boy Had to Learn Poker
  • Gambling "Commercialized" and Organized
  • "Square" Gamblers all "Broke"
  • The Story of Hot Springs
  • Politics and "Business" Worked for "the Game"
  • The "Open" Season of 1912-13
  • Something Bound to Happen
  • As the "Straight" Gamblers Saw It
  • Why...

The actual experiences of a visitor to the most famous gaming resort in the American metropolis.

Excerpt from the introduction:

This article about highly unusual and uncommon hands at Whist and Poker as reported in the press was written by Charles Dickens for his publication All the Year Round. It includes a reformatted as well as a facsimile version of the article.

1st edition 1876; PDF 8 pages.

Stories of card and revolver play, told by a man who "worked" the trains with his confederates in the days when stakes ran high.

If one believes this account, then a lot of the crooked gambling on trains was simply theft at gunpoint rather than sophisticated sleight-of-hand card advantage play.

1st edition 1910, PDF 7 pages.